Who Is Lou?

A New Longmont Mural Honors the Legacy of Eloyeda “Lou” Cardenas—A Trailblazer for Community and Equity 

You’re not alone if, at first glance at Longmont’s recent construction on the northwest corner of Ninth Avenue and Main Street, you noticed the name Casa Lou Cardenas and pondered, “Who is Lou, and what is this person’s connection to Longmont?” 

That is, until the September 2024 unveiling of the pièce de résistance honoring the building’s namesake: a hand-painted, synthetic-cloth mural adorning its north face by local artist Mario Miguel Echevarria. At its center, holding a bouquet of flowers, is a depiction of a woman named Eloyeda B. “Lou” Pacheco Cardenas.

“A community activist who pushed for diversity, equity, and inclusion long before the concept entered our daily lexicon, most Longmont residents won’t recognize the name,” says Jennifer Peterson, president and developer of JSY Properties, the real estate company that owns the building. 

And that’s the point.

While developing the property, Peterson sought to honor a Longmont woman who made significant contributions to the town without recognition—an unsung heroine of sorts. 

“I said, ‘If I’m going to do this [project], it can’t be just a building,’” Peterson says. “‘It has to have a heart. It has to have a purpose.’”

That’s precisely what drew Echeverria to the project. He’s lived in Longmont for nearly 30 years but had never heard of Cardenas. He found this project particularly special because he’s always thought older women’s achievements have been overlooked.

“I try to think of all the murals that honor older women in the world; I can’t think of a single one,” he says. 

As an artist, Echeverria was thrilled by the opportunity to honor an important member of his community. 

“We wanted to make [Lou] a household name because she deserves it,” he says.

Born Sept. 7, 1918, Cardenas was just 10 years old when her family relocated from New Mexico to the Longmont area to pick beets for the Great Western Sugar Company. 

Cardenas recounts those early years, when her family worked hard and moved often to find more work, in the book We, Too, Came to Stay: A History of the Longmont Hispanic Community. The toil continued into adulthood, even as she married husband Joe Cardenas and raised four daughters and one son. 

In the book, Cardenas notes she only went to school for five years. But that never stopped her from speaking her mind, says daughter Lydia Gomez. She remembers as a child the shock of watching her mother march into businesses and rip signs from the window that declared, “White trade only.”

“I was afraid that maybe she would get arrested or something,” Gomez says. “But it didn’t happen. She was feisty.”

Cardenas was a regular at city council meetings; her husband always drove her. She began advocating for senior services and in 1971 was able to secure some funding for a building to house the first senior center in Longmont, according to Longmont Museum director Erik Mason.

Cardenas did all the legwork herself, wrangling a donated space near Fourth Avenue and Main Street and cobbling together federal dollars to fund the rest.